Summary Of Susan Boyd's 'Pleasure And Pain'

‘Pleasure and pain: Representations of illegal drug consumption, addiction and trafficking in music, film and video’, (Boyd 2011) is an analysis into various drug references, symbolism and imagery within popular culture from the 1920’s to 2010, and the role they play in the public perception and policy. Susan Boyd claims that political and institutional influences, particularly in music and film provide an increase in retributive justice towards drug use, however, also pave the way to more unorthodox forms of retaliation (ibid., p. 57). Boyd illustrates this through numerous texts which she claims have amplified after prohibition efforts, resulting in “proliferation of racialised, gendered and class-biased drug imagery in film and musical lyrics

Boyd brings significant attention to stereotypes of drugs and their users’ portrayal in film and music, including race, gender, class, and even the drug itself. She indicates such media following the drug prohibition suchlike Narcotic (1923) and Reefer Madness (1935) depict “violent dealers threatening white moral society” and how this demonises people of colour as drug users and pushers (The Drug Effect Health, crime and society, 2011, p. 58). Boyd also claims stereotypes extend to the illegal drug itself, although sometimes illustrated for pleasure and play, majority of media gravitate towards the drugs addiction and side effects creating a perceived danger. It is further stated that the depiction in media of white women using drugs fail in the roles expected of their gender, resulting in the apparent “breakdown of moral society” (ibid.). As such this impetus to the

Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist Philip Robson suggest this behaviour is a natural occurrence in humans and will not simply reside because of the potential risk of punishment. This is also illustrated well by Andrew Weil (The Natural Mind, 1973) whom is cited in ‘Forbidden Drugs’ by Robson, arguing that throughout history human beings have always displaced a fascination and want to explore and escape reality, further explaining that even other animals for instants such as dogs have been known to sniff psychoactive plants repeatedly to achieve intoxication (2009, p. 5). Boyd touches on films produced in the 1960s and ’70s, in which glamorous and normalise illegal drug use, refereeing to the film ‘Easy Rider’ (1969). Stating such films seem to regard the characters in a sympathetic way and show the protagonists “challenging conventional society”, the film was also accompanied with drug affiliated songs to further the ‘narrative’ (The Drug Effect Health, crime and society, 2011, p. 61). It is not hard to conclude that positive imagery and songs like Easy Rider and various others may appeal to an already present carnal need, resulting in a sway of moral compass in society, leading to a thirst of knowledge and experience of such illegal drugs and their